Two weeks from hell
by cuby18
Summary: Or sometimes the reasons behind seemingly pointless tasks are a bit different that one would imagine. Written for Spyfest 2019 FicExchange
1. Out in the field

**For the author of this prompt: ''All he wanted was a week off''**

**This story is written in two chapters because my first reaction upon reading the prompt was imagining Alex thinking it, and the second was about how it didn't explicitly state that it had to be Alex. So I wrote both.**

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_**Alex's POV**_

Alex was internally ranting as he was pacing the length of the rooftop. It was supposed to be his day off after constant stream of missions that just kind of piled on each other. It was his twelfth mission in just two months, and the longest he got without new assignment was two hours, namely just after his debriefing (he didn't deem that one little happening when he landed in a hospital for two days a respite). It seemed like he just couldn't catch a break lately. And that with him willingly working for MI6 in an official capacity, something he was seriously reconsidering. His previous unwillingness to accept an assignment outright at least brought him some more time as they scrambled to find appropriate bait or blackmail material.

It started innocently enough, he reflected, which was probably the reason he didn't have any real complaints for a while. His first mission was an actual surveillance assignment, when he – for a change – wasn't in any real danger (possible food poisoning aside, since it wouldn't be intentional). The group he was sent to spy on turned out to be completely harmless, although perhaps a bit too obsessed with a certain book. Their goal was to create a secret society that would meet up bi-monthly to copy the meetings from The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society*, down to every little detail, even the infamous pie. And since Alex had to read the book in preparation for the mission, he could wholeheartedly agree that the pie was disgusting. However, the book was also the cause for their seemingly suspicious behaviour, as they organised their outings to get a feel of how it would be if they were forced to hide from Nazis occupying their island. They welcomed him with open hands once he expressed his desire to join them when he expressed his interest while chatting with some of the members in the local library about how he loved the book.

And all it took were two meetings for him to determine that while some of the members might have been a sandwich short of a picnic they posed no real danger to anyone. Despite that, he was quite indignant that no one felt at all sympathetic about the fact that he was forced to try the pie and endure their drunken singing sessions.

However, since it was the first mission that could be considered 'simple' it was also the reason he let his guard down and accepted the new assignment he was being sent on to mere hours after the end of the second meeting and twenty minutes after his new debriefing.

His second mission was located in a new and prestigious wellness centre that advertised itself as the place to go for a healthy and relaxing retreat. That meant that all the vices such as smoking and alcohol were strictly prohibited and that there was a series of activities organised every day that was obligatory. Alex was being supposed to look for signs of it being a cover for a drug trafficking ring and despite trying not to jump to conclusions he was of the firm opinion that he wouldn't be so damn bored if that was the case. It was beginning of his second week there and he was about ready to die from boredom when he was finally approached by one of the guests that appeared to be regulars based on the way everyone greeted them by name. He liked to think it was his perfect adaptation to his role that got him that invitee, but if he was honest he would admit it was more likely that they noticed how he was ready to stage an emergency just to escape that teetotal prison, a sentiment that seemed to be shared by a large percentage of guests that were mostly there because it was expected.

Eagerly accepting he followed the man and it took him less than fifteen minutes to get all the photo and physical evidence needed to build a firm case against them (or to make them do whatever Blunt wanted them to do) which meant his mission was complete and he could finally leave.

It kind went on like that for the rest on the month, he was jumping from one mission to another without any time to even go and say hi to anyone, despite being back in London for debriefing approximately twice a week after that mission.

These missions were boring. It was like Blunt was just sending him on random assignments just to have him do something. Or to make him miserable, knowing Blunt both options were more than possible, especially since he seemed to actually have some sort of facial expression last time he was personally overseeing for the debriefing. He was sent on simple surveillance mission five more times, three times to infiltrate one group or another (all of them relatively harmless, although one of them was planning world domination using penguins as their agents – don't ask him how it was supposed to work, they were still in early stages; the progress report that he saw showed that paying any further attention to them in the next decade or two would be pointless as their progress was quite abysmal, especially considering that their leader was a world-renowned scientist), there was one actual car chase (that ended in under twenty minutes as the ''criminal'' was just trying to arrive on time to pick up his kids from his ex's house with whom he shared the custody). Oh, and that one case that landed him in the hospital because he hit his head quite badly due to falling from the balcony from which he was trying to observe the room for any supposedly suspicious activity as the police got some reports from the neighbours. It turned out they were all just jealous because the residents were richer than them and tried to humiliate them by having the police knocking and making them the talk of the whole street.

The whole thing was so boring that he started imagining what some famous detective would say in his situation (because lately work seemed more like what someone would approach a private detective with). He was just in the middle of Hercule Poirot's reaction, with Belgium accent and everything, and therefore didn't notice the balcony door opening until the only way to hide was to drop down on the grass. Sadly he miscalculated and ended up hitting his head at the stone lion perched under it. He woke up in the hospital with a concussion to the sounds of Mrs Jones arguing with some nurse about letting him go home early.

And it all led to his current situation. The mission was just one more in line of exceedingly pointless tasks he was assigned lately, he was supposed to wait on the rooftop in the middle of the London in case any of the parachuters that were testing some new mechanism for dropping from the plane onto enemy's territory missed their meeting point which was literally at the other side of the city. Any parachuters straying that far should be binned immediately in his opinion (it was revealed the testing was performed by some SAS units). The only silver lining was the thought of Wolf being one of the parachuters, regardless of how unlikely the chance of it happening was.

And on top of that, he was told to be on the rooftop three hours before they would even start the testing. Which meant he was there for a solid ten hours because the wind just wasn't strong enough to be a real challenge.

At the end, he was up there for twenty-three hours, since they had to postpone it once again due to it being too sunny. In London. Alex was so done with it all. As soon as he got back he would get some time off. Somehow. But at the moment he was quite prepared to try and strangle Blunt with his tie if it was what it took. He would give just everything for a week off everything even resembling a bank, penguins, books, pies or marbles.

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*** The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society is set during and after WWII and talks about a group of people living on an island that was occupied by Germans. The whole ''Society'' is their makeshift excuse to save their hides when they are caught outside after the police hour after they ate the only pig they managed to save for themselves. All of them quite drunk they pretend to be attending a meeting of their reading club. And their inebriated state is also the cause of the pie being added to the name.**


	2. Behind the scenes

**This is the result of ''it could be just about anyone''**

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_** Alan**** Blunt's POV (set in the same two weeks as the previous chapter)**_

Alan Blunt was quietly fuming as he was presented with yet another agent's request for some time off. It was the tenth such request that morning alone and he was on the verge of losing his composure fort he first time in last two decades. Lately, it was only due to his famed self-control that he didn't simply start shutting the door in people's faces as they brought him one memo after another. First, they just had to go and elect new Prime Minister that thought it his duty to stick his nose in every single working of the government, including MI6 and their Special Opp division. And his interest meant he was required for meetings twice a week to get acquainted with any new threats and the such. And then he just had to get wind of them using a minor (that was now finally working for them willingly) and went on a crusade to ensure he wasn't in any danger, and also wanted to assess his real potential. He simply dismissed all of his previous missions as unreliable as they never really documented how exactly he accomplished something. No, he wanted him tested in a ''safe environment''.

That then led to Alex being sent on some useless missions that everyone knew were more or less police work and didn't require any undercover work. And once the Prime Minister saw that yes, Alex knew his way around, he gave the green light to send him on some more missions, but only with his permission. That almost led to Blunt telling him that Special Opps are secret for a reason, but he still remembers the fallout when the previous PM found out about Alex and how it almost got him fired and swallowed the words.

Agreeing to run everything by him (at least for some small things as to not make him suspicious) he then tried to excuse himself to return to his office and do what he was paid for, but no, it turned out his input was needed on several different matters out of his jurisdiction. And he was stuck there for the day. It got so bad he barely saw his office in a week and was seriously considering different non-fatal ways of ensuring that he got some time to run the department. Not to say anything about a day off.

And his agents just had to choose the first day he spent in his office after three days of useless meetings to send in requests for holidays. He refused all of them, citing work emergency. There was, of course, no such thing at the moment, but if he couldn't get a reprieve, why should the agents? Oh no, it just wouldn't do for him to be the only miserable party.

Coming to a decision he decided on a little payback and scheduled a series of missions for Alex. All of them were useless, but as he was told to run every single one by Prime Minister, it was a form of payback. This time it was him that called the meetings, and if by the end of the third week he stopped being dragged over to Downey Street every hour, well, who was he to complain.


End file.
